


all i want for christmas (is to find the damn gift)

by yvessaintlourry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Crack, Christmas Fluff, Christmas fic, Crack, Did I Mention, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Merry Christmas, Writer Harry, anyway wbk im bad at tags, but its only kind of mentioned, but nialls reluctant, does this even count as a crack au, happy holidays, harry always hides his christmas gifts bc louis is nosy, he never has tho, louis always tries to find them, louis's an idiot but whats new, mentions of their meet cute, perhaps a......, so he gets niall to help, soft, some innuendos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:53:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21565864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yvessaintlourry/pseuds/yvessaintlourry
Summary: The air is brisk and cold, and Niall hasn’t checked the weather, but the temperature must be in the negatives and quickly dropping, because the longer he stands outside the door, the more he shakes. It could be the weather making him jittery, or it could be the anxiety he’s feeling from agreeing to do this with his best friend’s long-term boyfriend.He’s never even once in his life thought about betraying Harry, but when Louis asked him to do this, he was half-drunk, and Louis had his puppy dog eyes ready to go. No one can say no to Louis’s puppy dog eyes.or the one where Louis's one goal in life is to find his fucking Christmas gift that Harry has hidden somewhere around their flat
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55





	all i want for christmas (is to find the damn gift)

**Author's Note:**

> happy holidays !!!
> 
> feel free to follow me on twitter @lwtadoreyou !!!

The air is brisk and cold, and Niall hasn't checked the weather, but the temperature must be in the negatives and quickly dropping, because the longer he stands outside the door, the more he shakes. It _could_ be the weather making him jittery, or it could be the anxiety he’s feeling from agreeing to do this with his best friend's long-term boyfriend.

He’s never even _once_ in his life thought about betraying Harry, but when Louis asked him to do this, he was half-drunk, and Louis had his puppy dog eyes ready to go. _No one_ can say no to Louis’s puppy dog eyes.

He takes a breath and knocks on the door, afraid of what the Harry would think of him if he found out what he was about to partake in with his boyfriend of 7 years.

The door swings open, and Louis’s eyes are dark and determined.

“We have to be quick,” Louis pants, pulling Niall through the door by the collar of his shirt.

Niall grimaces as Louis drags his roughly to his and Harry’s shared bedroom.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Niall chatters. “We can stop now and never speak of it again.”

Louis huffs. “We agreed on this _last_ week, Ni. Harry’s barely ever out of the flat when I’m home unless his writer’s block is acting up, so this writing session seminar thing he’s at is the _only_ time we have to do this.”

The sigh that leaves Niall’s chest is full of anxiety, the flickering of his eyes towards the door mirroring his emotions. “What if he comes back early?” he rambles. “Aren’t you worried about him finding out? Are you playing Christmas music?" Mariah Carey rings in his ears.

“Of course I am, it's on-theme," he waves him off. "And why would he find out?” he almost laughs. “I’m not going to tell him. Are _you_, Nialler?” Niall groans, but shakes his head as Louis approaches him, running a finger down his chest. He gulps. “This button’s undone. Anyway, you start in here, and I’ll search his office. Try to put everything back where you found it; Harry’s really weird about me moving his things without telling him first.”

He twiddles his fingers over the undone button to make sure he’s no longer exposed and sighs, wondering how the hell he got himself into this as Louis rushes out of the room and into Harry’s home-office across the hall.

He grumbles obscenities to himself, crouching down to search under the bed. “Don’t you think it’s a little inconsiderate to try and find Harry’s Christmas gifts? Like, you _know_ Harry. He put a lot of time, effort, and thought into getting you the perfect gift. Or gifts, I don’t know. Doesn’t ruining the surprise for yourself ruin it for Harry too?” He reaches his hand out and barely hooks the pads of his fingers over an open box. _The presents couldn’t have been that easy to find, right?_ He looks into the box, and his eyes widen. “Oh _god_,” he gags, pushing the box chock-full of _unholy_ items back under the bed and out of his reach. “You could have warned me about your extensive _sex toy_ collection, by the way!” he calls out to him, images burning through his mind.

Louis ignores the latter statement. “Harry _knows_ I search for his gifts every year, Niall,” he calls back, digging through the drawer in Harry’s desk to find the key to his filing cabinet. “It’s just as much a game to him as it is to me. He hides them, and I search. I’ve never found them, but I’m determined this year.”

“They’re not in here,” Niall shouts, barely tossing through the dresser.

“Check the closet!” Louis huffs. “There are shelves in there I can’t reach.”

Niall snorts. “Maybe you should start buying heels like Harry.”

Louis’s eyes roll into the back of his head as he shoves the filing cabinet closed, coming up empty-handed. The office is clear of anything other than half-written chapters of a book Harry’s currently writing and idea notebooks filled to the brim with scribblings of 3AM thoughts and grocery lists. “Shove off, Niall. We’re the same height.”

“I’m 5’9!”

“So am _I_, Niall!”

Niall lets out a cackle. “Whatever you say, Lou.”

“_Just_,” Louis groans, stomping his foot. “Move on to the living room. I’m checking the guest room.”

Niall sighs and steps down from the chair he had moved into the closet. There was nothing up there but dust bunnies and a string of expired condoms that should probably never see the light of day again.

He searches between couch cushions and inside the TV stand and only comes across some spare change and an empty bottle of lube. _Gross_. He gags and throws the bottle onto the window seat. When the plastic collides with the pillow-covered wood, a low, echoey sound reverberates in his ears. He sighs and opens the hall closet, opening an empty suitcase and digging through the clutter. “All that time spent in the closet, and they couldn’t fucking organize it while they were there?” Niall grumbles to himself, attempting to shove a duffel bag back into the top of the closet where he found it. He manages to jump high enough to stuff it back enough for it to stay in place.

His eyebrows furrow as he slowly closes the closet back up, eyes peering curiously in the direction that he threw the lube. His body turns toward the window seat as he moves closer to it. He knocks on the wood of the seat, cocking his eyebrow when the hollow sound echoes once again. Cautiously, he pulls on the top of the seat, gasping when it opens, revealing a hollowed-out inside that contained empty picture frames, extra bed sheets, and-

_A Christmas gift._

Niall’s shoulders slouch, because he really didn’t want to find the gift. He reaches into the seat and pulls the bag out. He imagines that this is the point that he should call for Louis and tell him he found what they were looking for, but he decides it would be more fun to take the first peak, himself. As a reward. Or something.

He moves the tissue paper to the side, reaching his hand in. He peaks his eye into the crack to find-

Niall pales. _“Oh, no.”_

“Well, the guest room’s a _bust_,” Louis complains, waltzing into the room. “Have you found anything- What’s that?”

Niall gapes up at Louis, quickly putting the tissue paper back where it was. He manages to shake his head. “No, this is-”

“You found it!” Louis screeches giddily, running over to him. “Let me see!” Niall scrambles to his feet, backing away from the nosy boy. Louis’s eyebrows furrow. “What are you doing? Give me the gift, Ni.”

Nervous laughter leaves his chest before he can stop it, moving the gift so that it’s hidden behind his back. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think you should just wait until Christmas.”

“Very funny, Niall,” Louis chuckles. “Hand it over.”

“No,” he gulps.

Louis pauses. “No? Why not? Just-” He tries to reach behind Niall to take the gift from him, but the Irishman moves too quickly. “Give it to me.”

“I cannot in good conscience do that.”

“This is ridiculous. Just-”

Niall moves his arm again when Louis reaches for it, putting it high into the air and taking a step back when Louis grabs onto his shoulder and pushes himself up to try and reach the gift. Louis huffs and swiftly moves his heel to the back of Niall’s knee, pressing into it so that Niall collapses onto the ground, Louis tackling him and snatching the gift from his fingers. He quickly clambers off of Niall, crawling on his knees. A loud grunt leaves Louis’s chest as he crashes onto the hardwood flooring, feeling hands grab his ankle and yank him backward. Louis quickly shoves the gift bag under his jumper and hugs it against his stomach as Niall pulls him up by his shoulders so that his back is pressed firmly against his chest. Niall’s hands forcefully try to remove Louis’s arms from their place guarding the opening of his jumper, nails grazing the skin of his forearms as they shout obscenities at each other, Louis trying his absolute hardest to escape from the other boy’s grasp.

They freeze when they hear the front door slam, and they look over to find a confused Harry with an amused smile plastered on his face.

“What’s going on here?” he asks slowly, setting his bag down on their sofa as he stares down at the frozen boys on the floor.

Louis and Niall eye the bump in Louis’s sweater where the small red and green striped bag is hidden. “We were just, um…” Louis can’t think of an excuse fast enough. _Say something. Anything._

Niall rolls his eyes and takes an annoyed breath to get ready to blow their cover. “Louis’s-”

“-Cheating on you,” Louis interjects in a panic. Niall gives him a horrified look and shakes his head violently. “I’m cheating on you. With Niall. We’re lovers. Yep,” he nods.

“What the _fuck_, Louis?” Niall exclaims, pushing the idiot boy away from him and sitting upright on the floor, dusting himself off.

Louis lands on his bum with a squeak, staring up at the lanky boy standing in front of them.

A stunned expression is painted on Harry’s face as he glances between his boyfriend and his best friend. Louis bites his lip, and he probably _shouldn’t_ have gone with_ I’m cheating on you with your best friend_ to conceal his and Niall’s Christmas present scavenger hunt.

Louis’s about to break and admit to everything, when Harry snorts, laughter crumbling out of his mouth so loudly, Louis thinks they might receive a noise complaint later. “No, really,” he giggles, wiping a tear. “What are you two doing?”

Louis feels relief crash over him, slouching and running his hands through his hair. Fortunately, Harry knows Louis too well to know that what he just said is complete bullshit. _Unfortunately_, though, when Louis raises his arms, his jumper lifts just enough so that the precious Christmas bag he was concealing drops onto the floor, the tap it makes against the hardwood immediately ceasing Harry’s chuckles. His face drops as he stares at the familiar present, disappointment befalling his eyes.

His shoulders droop. “Lou,” he voice softens, defeat filling his tone. “You didn’t.”

Louis frowns and pulls his knees to his chest. Suddenly, his exciting annual game _isn’t_ so exciting anymore. “Harry-”

He takes a step forward. “Did you-did you open it?” he stutters, gripping the hair at the top of his head.

Louis quickly shakes his head. “No. I promise. Here, take it.” He pushes it toward Harry and gives him the sweetest smile he can muster.

Harry sighs, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. He bends over and grabs the bag from the floor. “Stand up, babe.”

Louis quickly does as he’s told, scrambling to his feet. Niall scoots himself back into the couch, knees pressed to his chest as he wishes he had gone to the cinema with Lewis instead.

“Love, I’m so sorry,” Louis whines, throwing his arms around Harry’s neck dramatically, pressing his cheek into his chest.

Harry presses a kiss onto Louis’s forehead and chuckles. “It’s alright, babe. I’m not mad.”

Louis’s head shoots up to make eye-contact with the taller boy. “You’re not?”

“You’re _not_?” Niall repeats. Louis shoots him a glare. His eyes narrow. “Don’t fucking glare at me, mate, this was all your idea.”

“I’m not mad,” Harry says, bringing Louis’s attention back to him. “_But_,” he says, taking the tissue paper out of the bag and throwing it onto the floor. Louis gasps. “Since you already went through all this trouble, I might as well just show you what I got you, yeah?”

Louis shakes his head, running his hands over his chest. “No, babe, really. I’ll wait, it’s fine. I don’t want to ruin it for you.”

Harry chuckles at that, squeezing Louis’s shoulders. “A few days difference could never ruin this for me.”

Louis shakes his head. “But, babe-”

Harry shushes him, catching Louis off guard as he pulls the gift out of the bag and hiding it behind his back as he throws the bag across the room.

“Louis,” Harry starts.

“Harry,” he echoes his tone.

A grin forms on Harry’s lips. “Louis. Do you remember when we first met?”

Louis furrows his eyebrows, but answers nonetheless. “Of course. You were working on one of those creative essays for one of your courses, and I was the waiter bringing you your coffee and scone.” He smiles at the memory. “You were basically pulling your hair out of your skull, because you couldn’t figure out the perfect way for your character to-”

“Propose to his girlfriend, yeah,” Harry finishes for him.

“Right, yeah.”

Harry grins, dimples caving in on his cheeks nicely. “Well, I was never satisfied with what I had him say. But I think I finally figured it out.”

Niall gasps and Louis takes a step back, heart pounding in his chest. “Wait-”

“Do you want to know what I would have him say now?”

“Harry-”

“This is what he would say,” Harry begins. Louis might be sick. “From the moment I met you, I knew you would ruin everything for me.”

Niall cackles out a laugh, covering his mouth with his hand quickly. They both decide to ignore him.

Louis’s eyebrows raise. “_Ruin_ everything?”

Harry nods. “From the moment I met you, I knew you would ruin everything for me. _Everything_.”

“Okay, I _get_ it,” Louis huffs with a stomp.

Harry shushes him again with a peck on his lips. “You’ve ruined other partners for me, because none of them could ever compare to the amount of happiness and laughter you bring to my life.” Louis’s face softens. “You’ve ruined sleeping alone, because I just toss and turn all night without you there to hold me tight. You’ve ruined my stomach, because every time I look at you, butterflies swarm inside of me. You’ve ruined my family gatherings, because when you can’t make it to one, there’s an empty seat at the table where your wonderful, _wonderful_ ass should be. You’ve ruined my mum and sister for me, because I’m no longer the only son and brother. _Hell_, you’ve ruined avocado toast, because I can’t even eat it anymore without hearing that fucking rant of yours in the back of my mind.”

Louis can’t help but giggle, wiping the water from under his eyes with a sniffle. “Trendiest food of all time.”

“You’ve ruined my rings for me, because the only ring I can think about…” he brings his hands in front of him, revealing a small black velvet box that has Louis’s hand shooting to his mouth as he gasps. “Is this one. Because I want to put it on your finger and have you keep it there forever.” He opens the box to reveal a silver band with the words _‘Always in my heart’_ engraved in script around it. Louis lets out a sob at the sight. “But mostly,” Harry exhales. “You’ve ruined my ability to love. Because if I can’t love you,” Harry sighs, shaking his head. “I don’t want to love anyone ever again. Because you’re it for me, Lou.” He kneels down so that he’s on one knee, and Louis’s a complete mess at this point, tears and snot alike cascading down his face too quickly for him to wipe away. “Will you marry me?”

Louis sinks down onto his knees so that he’s level with the most wonderfully amazing man in the world. He swings his arms around his neck, causing him to almost topple backwards, steadying himself at the last second by wrapping his arms around Louis’s waist and nuzzling his head into his shoulder. “I love you so fucking much,” Louis sobs, tightening his grip.

“I love you too,” Harry sniffs, choking up a bit. He pulls away just enough to look into Louis’s wet, bloodshot eyes. “Is that a yes?” he chuckles, moving his hands up to cup Louis’s cheeks, wiping his tears away with his thumbs.

“_Yes_, yes, _of course_, you idiot,” Louis nods frantically, crashing his lips into Harry’s, and pulling him somehow closer with his grip on his shirt. The kiss grows deeper and more heated, Harry’s hand moving down to grip Louis’s bum as Louis runs his hands underneath Harry’s shirt.

“_Please_ keep in mind that I’m still sitting here,” Niall begs, banging his head against his knees in agony.

The pair break apart, tilting their heads to look at the poor Irishman as they suddenly remember they’re not alone.

“Sorry,” Louis breathes, turning back to Harry.

“Can I see your hand?” Harry asks, grabbing the ring out of its box.

Louis nods and holds out his left hand to Harry, bouncing giddly on his knees in anticipation as Harry slides the ring onto his finger.

“Congratulations, lads,” Niall says with a smile. “Now, can I please go _before_ you fuck on the floor in front of me?”

“Get out of here, Ni,” Harry nods toward the door, and Niall quickly scrambles up and sprints away, closing the door loudly behind himself.

Harry cups Louis’s cheeks in his hands and presses another kiss to his lips, pulling away so that their noses are still brushing. “Happy early Christmas, Lou.”

Louis bites his lip, failing to conceal his dizzy grin. “Happy early Christmas, Haz.”

“And, Lou?”

Louis hums. “Yeah, Haz?”

An evil grin makes its way onto Harry’s face. “This was your birthday gift. Your Christmas gift is still hidden, safe and sound.”


End file.
